Martijn Krabbé has proven to the RTL management with a scan that he is really ill, says the terminally ill presenter in the LINDA. “I wanted to show them that I don’t tell a bullshit story.”
For years and years, Martijn Krabbé has been considered the biggest star of RTL 4, but since he was diagnosed with cancer a year ago, he has not been in front of the camera. And that probably won’t happen often anymore: this week the presenter announced that he is terminally ill and there is no chance of getting better.
Sweet and involved
In the last period of his life, 56-year-old Martijn mainly wants to enjoy his family, with whom he is going on wonderful trips. In the meantime, he is still under contract with RTL, where he has been employed for thirty years.
The presenter talks about this LINDA.: “I couldn’t have chosen a better place to get sick, really. My bosses there – Sven (Sauvé), Peter (van der Vorst) and Ellen (Meijerse) – come to visit every two weeks to see how I am. So sweet and involved.”
Dick story
His daughter Michelle then notes that Martijn felt the urge to prove his illness. “The other day you showed them a scan.”
Martijn: “Somehow I wanted to show those three people that I don’t tell bullshit stories. That scan makes it very clear what is going on now: that there is a kind of ping-pong ball in my head.”
Recordings
Will Martijn ever experience TV recordings again? “I would like it, but then I have to be fitter than I am now.”
Michelle would rather not have it: “To be honest, we would also rather have him spend the energy he still has on us.”
And Martijn does that to the fullest: “Deborah and I went on an individual trip with all the children. (…) And we are all going to Sri Lanka, to the Taj Mahal in India and on safari. I also want to go again.”
Disappointment
How does Martijn look back on his TV career? He never really enjoyed it, he says. What got in the way of that? “Disappointment in myself. I thought I should have aimed higher. I have been very ambitious, but I have also lived too lazily. I still think that I should often have expected more of myself.”
“After a few seasons, programs became a kind of repetition exercise for me. I didn’t do it reluctantly, I often had a lot of fun, but something regularly crossed my mind: I can do better than this.”
What does Angela think?
How does AD opinion diva Angela de Jong view this? She writes in the newspaper: “That passage made me somewhat sad. He is doing himself and his work a disservice.”
“A presenter of entertainment programs may not change the world, but giving people a few hours of fun one day, making them laugh, taking them into another world, knows how to touch them through the screen, make them feel like they are not alone – is also worth a lot.”
“Just look at all the emotional reactions from unknown people that the interview evoked.”